how to tell why my atv is crashing

[danGIMP]

I need some help to determine why my ATV is crashing. I run boxee, xbmc and I run an rtorrent in a dtach session. Anyway, I haven't had any problems until this week when I started noticing that my ATV is crashing at random times. I'm not familiar enough with the ATV's operating system to know where a syslog or eventlog would be kept. Can anyone help?

Since my TV only has one HDMI connection (it's old, I know), I bought a 5-1 hdmi switch; I'm thinking that might have something to do with the ATV crashing but I really would like to see some logs to confirm it.

TIA!

[SamNazarko]

APPLETV:

boxee.log: /Users/frontrow/Library/Logs/boxee.log
Console log: /Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log
Crashreporter log: /Users/frontrow/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/CrashReporter.log

Is it crashing with Boxee or just in frontrow in general use. I find the cheap HDMI switches either work perfectly or they're just a cheap pile of rubbish that don't deliver a picture and end up as a doorstop.

Why don't you try connecting aTV directly to your TV for a while and see if that yields some better results?

[danGIMP]

I can't tell what is causing the recent string of crashes. I pretty much just use the ATV for XBMC and BOXEE.

Pastebin'd my /var/log/crashreporter.log

http://pastebin.com/dkcjVYeN

Any ideas or can someone point me to a better forum to track down this issue?

[SamNazarko]

Do us a favour, take off the switch for a while and tell me how it goes. Noticing some display issues reported, the switch might cause this.

Afterwards, if your problem is not fixed, try restoring the filesystem.

[nuggyblake]

I can't tell what is causing the recent string of crashes. I pretty much just use the ATV for XBMC and BOXEE.

Pastebin'd my /var/log/crashreporter.log

http://pastebin.com/dkcjVYeN

Any ideas or can someone point me to a better forum to track down this issue?

Dan, I dont know if this is related, but around the release of 2.1, there was a lot of complaints about people using HDMI switches and/or using a receiver to "switch". I dont know if this was ever resolved. I have three HDMI ports on my TV, so its mute for me, but I think Sam is bang on, you need to eliminate the switch, or even better if this doesnt work, try component for a few days and see if this makes any difference. Looking at your logs, there are several "video" related crashes (BUT, there are other NON video). Its likely the switch and the ATV SW, or you might have a dicky HDMI port.

you can see the 2.1 issues at;

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....readID=1528005

Nigel

[SamNazarko]

I think the reason for non-video errors is because of an issue when the Geforce 7300GO in the aTV does not work correctly, this causes issues with other apps on aTV trying to send video.

I think you'll find it's an hdmiutil bug. Nigel is right, as of 2.0 there were some changes to HDMI firmware. Added was HDCP and reformed handshaking protocols. I remember someone complaining about HDMI failing to negotiate with the TV. Not much you can do to be honest.

You can:


Use HDMI directly.
Try another switch.
Go Component

[maximusfacq]

4th Option:

Use the TV as a monitor and an A/V Receiver as a switch. Plug the ATV into the A/V Receiver, and Tada! Problem solved.

All video passes through the A/V Receiver and all audio comes out through the speakers attached to the A/V Receiver.

[SamNazarko]

True, but this relies on the fact OP has one.

[maximusfacq]

We can hope, can't we?

[SamNazarko]

Lol we can indeed.

The OP needs to chime in and give us a low down on what's going on now